Testing

With three punches and two kicks, Xu Yue had taken down the subordinates of three Elite Reincarnators. The captain of the Mermaid mercenary group did not dare let him continue like this.

Veteran Reincarnators could be recruited in any number, but Elite Reincarnators already stood at the true upper end of the food chain.

Now that they had probed his strength, it was time to make their move.

"You have no idea who you are facing. With my soul body, I can greatly reduce most of the damage you deal!"

(The soul bodies in Bleach can interfere with matter and are practically materialized themselves. They reduce physical damage but cannot completely nullify it. This seems like one of Kubo Tite’s inherently contradictory settings.)

The thorn-chain Zanpakuto in his hand lashed out like a meteor hammer, hurtling straight toward Xu Yue.

Its violent momentum stirred up a piercing howl.

At the same time, he sneered inwardly. His attacks could strike directly at the soul, dealing double damage to both soul and body. As long as either side of your defenses was insufficient, you would be severely wounded!

You simply…

Bang!

A casual punch shattered the spiked iron ball whistling toward him into pieces. The next moment, Xu Yue lunged at another Elite Reincarnator.

Watching his weapon turn into fragments filling the sky, the Mermaid captain’s pupils contracted sharply.

A purely physical attack had shattered his weapon?

How was that possible?!

Just how resilient was this man’s soul?

He could produce such an effect simply by empowering ordinary punches and kicks?!

Bleach soul bodies possessed the ability to directly interfere with matter. It was not that they were completely immune to physical attacks, but their damage reduction was extremely high.

Yet now, the opponent had used nothing but an ordinary attack. What might have been a simple collision of souls had actually blown apart his weapon!

It was simply inconceivable!

Still, he quickly steadied himself. He held every advantage; that had merely been a test.

"Haha, not bad. You actually managed to withstand my probing strike, but I have already seen through your abilities!"

The Mermaid captain wore a crazed, deranged expression, looking exactly like a mentally unstable pervert.

Hmph. So what if you blocked my first strike? All you did was let me know in advance that you can inflict heavy damage on my spirit body.

He recondensed the strange Zanpakuto in his hand and assumed an eerie posture, as if he himself had been wrapped in an instrument of torture. Then thorns pierced his entire body, leaving him drenched in blood.

"Awaken, Iron Maiden!"

The chains that had originally wrapped around him suddenly underwent a bizarre transformation. A phantom suit of iron armor formed from the entwined Zanpakuto, its interior packed with dense spikes, before completely encasing the Mermaid captain.

A great deal of blood sprayed from openings such as the armor’s eyeholes, dyeing the entire suit crimson and turning it into blood armor.

It formed a steel monster clad in blood.

Then it crashed heavily onto the ground!

"Carriage of thunder, gap of a spinning wheel, with light gathered and divided into six—Kidō #61: Six Light Prison!"

The moment he landed, he raised a hand and unleashed a Kidō above sixty straight at Xu Yue, trying to stop him from killing the other Elite Reincarnator.

Yet even with six diamond-shaped beams of light completely binding Xu Yue around the waist, Xu Yue still reached out, pressed a hand onto a warrior monk’s head, and shoved it straight down from his neck into his chest and abdomen.

Only then did he lower his head to look at the six prisms of light binding his waist. The light prisms seemed to pin him in midair, producing immense resistance whenever he tried to move.

"Kidō #61 is indeed quite good. It is far superior to that inferior Zanpakuto of yours."

Looking up at the blood-red armor charging toward him, Xu Yue smiled casually.

Giving yourself a good time beforehand? No wonder this legion is so skilled at torture.

"You know nothing about the power contained within Iron Maiden!"

With his Zanpakuto completely transformed into the armor on his body, the Mermaid captain threw a punch that nearly liquefied the air before him, driving it straight at Xu Yue.

The heavy, overwhelming blow seemed impossible to evade.

Judging by the display of strength, while encased in Iron Maiden, he was actually no weaker than Xu Yue’s perfected Body Mastery.

Coupled with that obviously formidable defense, he indeed had the right to be arrogant.

With his waist bound, Xu Yue raised a hand, preparing to block the punch.

The instant Xu Yue raised his hand, a cruel smile appeared on the Mermaid captain’s face within the armor. How naive…

But the next moment, amid the repulsion of an invisible nested polygonal force field, the metal can was blasted away at an even faster speed than it had come.

Even after hitting the ground, he continued bouncing across it, smashing through a row of massive boulders.

The light prisms binding Xu Yue’s waist were also instantly blasted apart.

After reflexively activating his AT Field, Xu Yue looked down in surprise at his palm, which was covered in tiny bloody holes.

He had not intended to use the AT Field for that strike. He had simply wanted to test the opponent’s level of strength.

But at the instant they made contact, Xu Yue immediately felt a piercing pain as though his entire body had been impaled.

With Force Sense warning him in advance, Xu Yue activated his AT Field and blasted the opponent away before that power could fully erupt.

At this moment, bloody holes had appeared not only on his arm, but across his body as well!

He could actually transfer the damage he suffered back along the attack?

This was a nemesis for martial arts…

With that single blow, Xu Yue’s evaluation of him rose considerably.

Uh, although no matter how dense these bloody holes were, the terrifying healing power of a perfected Sage Body healed them so quickly that barely any blood even flowed.

The other members near the Mermaid mercenary group were also filled with disbelief as they watched their invincible captain get sent flying in a single strike.

Wasn’t their captain best at dealing with opponents who liked fighting fist to fist? Even stronger big shots could be defeated by him.

What was going on this time?!

And the other party had not even been left with a single wound!

"What a bother. It seems martial arts are no longer convenient for testing."

That had been entirely thanks to the AT Field, which had blasted the opponent away the moment his power fully erupted.

If Xu Yue had truly taken the full force of that attack head-on, the perfected Sage Body would have kept him from dying, but he would still have suffered fairly serious injuries.

At the very least, he would have needed over ten seconds to recover.

As Xu Yue pondered, a chain lashed out from the void behind him, whipping violently toward an apparently empty direction.

A wash of ink-colored aura faded away, revealing the big-headed old man with a shocked expression.

He only had time to raise the katana in his hand into a blocking stance before the chain struck him.

The same nested polygonal force field appeared, and the old man followed in the Mermaid captain’s footsteps.

And compared to the Mermaid captain, who possessed Iron Maiden’s powerful defense, the little old man was clearly in far worse condition.

Though he landed nimbly and regained his footing, his face and body were covered in scrapes and bloodstains.

Even though they were only superficial wounds, his expression became exceptionally ugly.

His stealth ability had an extremely high clearance level!

Detection skills rated A or below could not possibly notice even the slightest trace of him. Could the opponent actually possess a detection skill at S-rank?

How was that possible?!

At his level, people generally followed a fixed path, using one S-rank ability as their core while everything else served as support for that core skill.

Thus, their mutual counters were extremely obvious!

But this guy had first displayed terrifying Body Mastery, then a power that could blast away his successor, and now he could even see through his concealment before attacking him?

Did he have no blind spots at all?!

At this moment, the captain who had been blasted away also crawled out from beneath the rubble with an angry roar. There was not even a scratch on the blood armor.

"Useless! My defense is invincible! No matter how powerful your attacks are, they cannot harm me!"

Xu Yue seemed to sigh. He truly did not have many ordinary ninjutsu—just things like the Great Fireball, which had no value for testing at all…

Since he had happened upon a turtle shell, he might as well test its penetrating power. The defenses of ordinary jonin were still far too weak.

Then he slowly raised a finger and pointed it at the metal can.

The instant he was pointed at, the Mermaid captain felt his scalp explode with dread, every hair on his body standing on end.

At the very moment the thought of dodging arose, under the altered compression of Shinra Tensei, the infinitely extending AT Field pierced through him in an instant. The moment Xu Yue raised his finger, it had already punched straight through.

A bright white cross appeared, completely piercing Iron Maiden from four directions within!

"Ah!"

Yet after taking such an attack and suffering such damage, with a cross piercing through his limbs and torso, the man could still let out a scream.

The blood armor did not shatter into pieces because of the cross. Instead, it stubbornly maintained its overall shape.

Only gaping holes had been left behind, with large amounts of blood pouring out.

"What happened to the captain?"

"How can this be? The captain’s defense was breached?"

"This can’t be real!"

"Back then, the captain could laugh while facing the combined assault of so many people. How could this happen?!"

The instant destruction of their captain’s defense, combined with the shocking explosive effect of the cross, made it impossible for anyone to accept.

They could understand the captain being blasted away at first, but seeing his defense pierced through as if it were paper was truly unacceptable!

For a moment, those preparing to charge forward and surround Xu Yue could not help stopping in their tracks…

"You can convert damage into delayed damage and spread it out over time for yourself to bear later? Double-layered defense. That is indeed quite impressive."

Lowering his finger, Xu Yue now understood the opponent’s defensive mechanism.

First, there was the blood armor that had nearly withstood his attack. Even perfected Body Mastery would not have caused the slightest change when striking it, and the fact that it had not been torn apart even after the defense was breached and the attack exploded was the best proof.

And even after his defense was broken, the man possessed an exceptionally good damage transfer ability, storing all excess damage and allowing himself to endure it gradually over a certain period of time.

He was quite an excellent MT. Unfortunately, he lacked agility, and his attacks relied heavily on the restraints of Kidō. He could not evade Xu Yue’s attack at all.

If that attack had been aimed at the Nura Clan beside him, it would have been completely useless. If you could not even hit the target, there was no point discussing damage.

Since he had rarely come out to fight, and there were so many excellent test subjects here, Xu Yue naturally wanted to test all the strengths and weaknesses of his various abilities.

Different opponents required different abilities to deal with them.

After all…

He had no intention of leaving any survivors…

"Surrender by leaving the legion?"

Eight chains extended infinitely from the void behind him, descending from the sky and plunging into the earth. A barrier designed for use with the AT Field unfolded in reverse, enclosing everyone within.

"That is not an option…"

Several members who had sensed that the battle was going badly and wanted to leave the legion to surrender or use some life-saving item discovered in despair that the other party had no intention of accepting surrender at all…

Today, there are only two updates, but this one is really long. There is still one more coming later, please spare me…